The duel began with a roar of silent fire.
Inside the cockpit of his Apex Mech, Lord Valerius's face was a mask of triumphant fury. "Die!" he screamed, jamming his thumb down on the firing stud.
The plasma cannon on the mech's right arm unleashed a torrent of energy, a brilliant, blindingly white beam that shot across the blackness of space.
It was a spear of pure destruction, hot enough to melt the hull of a starship, fast enough to cross the distance to its target in less than a second. For anyone watching, it looked like the end. A tiny human figure was about to be completely erased from existence.
But Ryan didn't move. He simply watched the beam of death approach. As it got closer, he raised a single, calm hand. His eyes glowed with a soft, silvery light. System, he commanded in his mind, Impose Rule: Temporal Field. Slow.
